Ethiopia has high hopes for its aviation business with China

Ethiopia aims to have strategic cooperation with China in the aviation sector as

the East African nation works to become an African aviation hub, said Ethiopia's

transport minister on Saturday.

Speaking to Xinhua, Ahmed Shide, minister of Ethiopia's Ministry of Transport,

says Ethiopia and China have made air infrastructure a major pillar of the two

countries' cooperative projects.

"Aviation is an important area of cooperation by both governments, with

Ethiopia's national air carrier Ethiopian Airlines becoming a connecting force

between Africa and China," says Shide.

Ethiopian Airlines already has five flight destinations in China, including Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, Hong Kong and Guangzhou.

"We plan to make Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa a strategic aviation hub between

China and Africa," says Shide, adding that with China working on being an

airplane manufacturing center, he expects Ethiopia to be a customer of fully

developed Chinese airplanes in the future.

Ethiopia's aim to be an African aviation hub connecting the continent to the

world's most populous country is also where Ethiopia's aviation dreams

intersect with China's capital and expertise.

Expansion work on Ethiopia's largest airport the Addis Ababa Bole International

Airport, funded by a 345 million US dollar-loan from China's Exim bank is being

undertaken by China Communications Construction Company Limited (CCCC).

The project, lying on 74,000 square meters of land, plans to increase the

airport's annual passenger handling capacity from the current 7 million to 22

million.

Shide says Ethiopia expects Chinese cooperation in Ethiopia's aviation

sector to grow with plans by Ethiopia to build a mega airport outside of

Addis Ababa.

"The planned mega airport which is expected to cost 3 billion US dollars will

be able to service up to 100 million passengers annually," Hailu Lemu, Chief

Engineer of Ethiopian Airports Enterprise (EAE), told Xinhua early this month.